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Ke Jie 9P edged out Lee Sedol 9P by the narrowest of margins — a half-point — to win the MLily Cup Monday night in a dramatic deciding fifth game that drew a record number of viewers to the AGA’s YouTube channel, where Myungwan Kim 9P and Andrew Jackson provided blow-by-blow commentary to a nailbiting audience that hit just over 14,000 at its peak, far surpassing the previous record of 400 viewers. The winner collected not just this year’s MLily international title and a purse of over $300,000, but bragging rights in the classic showdown between two go titans, one a seasoned veteran from Korea, the other a young rising star from China. The battle see-sawed back and forth, taking fans of both players on a wild ride, and went on until just past midnight on the West Coast, drawing intense attention worldwide — especially in Korea and China — and the AGA’s broadcasting efforts, anchored by Kim and Jackson, brought the match to a much broader gaming audience on YouTube and Twitch. A report on Myungwan Kim’s commentary was also featured in the Chosun news, helping to drive thousands of Korean viewers to the AGA’s YouTube channel as well. The coverage even inspired one viewer to donate to the AGA. “I had such a blast on the live MLily Cup Game moderated by Andrew Jackson with the Myungwan Kim 9p comments) that I just donated $50 to the org, this is truely awesome!” wrote Indigonauts. “This is amazing that I can watch a professional #baduk match in English now. Thanks @theaga,” added Christopher Annanie on Twitter. The AGA broadcast team also included Kevin Hwang, Peter Nelson, Steven Hu, Nick Sibicki, and more (we’ll update this more completely asap).- Chris Garlock

The year is barely a few days old and it’s already been an exciting one for the American Go Association. Hundreds tuned in on January 1 to Myungwan Kim 9Ps commentary on our YouTube channel for the third round of the MLily Cup battle between go titans Lee Sedol and Ke Jie. Then an attack on the datacenter that hosts our site took the AGA’s website down until midday Sunday (though we were able to get some preliminary content out via our Facebook and Twitter feeds on Saturday and early Sunday), just in time for our coverage of the 4th AGA Professional Qualifier at the Hotel Normandie in Los Angeles. And as the AGA pro event began to wind down for the day early Sunday evening, our coverage of the fourth round of the MLily began. “After the pro qualifications, I thought I’d have a go overdose, but no way,” said one YouTube viewer, “let’s watch this game.”

AGA Pro Qualifier coverage continues all week, with game broadcasts beginning at 9:30a PST and 3P PST daily, along with continuous posts on Facebook and Twitter, plus game highlights on YouTube. And if a fifth game is needed in the MLily Cup, we’ll broadcast that as well; stay tuned for complete details.

The AGA’ live game commentary on the MLily Cup finals between Lee Sedol 9P and Ke Jie 9P will begin with Game 2 on Wednesday, December 30, not Tuesday 12/29 as previously announced. Myungwan Kim 9Ps commentary will begin at 9pm PST (midnight EST) on the AGA’s YouTube channel.graphic by xhu

The AGA will provide live game commentary this week on the upcoming MLily Cup finals between Lee Sedol 9P and Ke Jie 9P. The first game is tomorrow (Tuesday), December 29; Myungwan Kim 9Ps commentary will begin at 9pm PST (midnight EST) on the AGA’s YouTube channel. Games 2 and 3 are scheduled for 12/30 and 1/1; if the best-of-five contest goes longer, games are scheduled for January 3 and 4, if necessary.

Lee Sedol 9P (right) defeated Ahn Seongjun 6P and Ke Jie 9P (left) beat Park Younghun 9P in the semifinals of the second MLily Cup, played November 22-25 in Hefei, China. The Ke Jie-Park Younghun showdown — relayed live on the AGA’s YouTube channel with commentary by Myungwan Kim 9P — was one of the most interesting matches of the year.

Ke Jie is ranked #1 in China, is virtually undefeated as White in 2015 and proceeded to the final of the 2015 Samsung Cup in early November by defeating Lee Sedol. Meanwhile, Park Younghun is in his second heyday in 2015. He’s ranked #3 in Korea, and he proceeded to the final of 20th LG Cup by defeating Tuo Jiaxi 9p about only a week ago.

Lee Sedol is currently ranked #2 in Korea, and Ahn Seongjun is ranked #7.

Click here for more analysis, photos, game records and game commentary by Younggil An 8P on Go Game Guru.

- Go Game GuruUpdate (12/24): Ke is not, as originally reported, undefeated this year on white; in fact he has lost twice.

Ke Jie 9P lost Game 2 of the MLily Cup semifinal against Park Younghoon 9P Monday night, setting up a decisive Game 3 showdown that will be broadcast Tuesday night. Myungwan Kim 9P will provide live English commentary on the AGA’s Youtube Channel starting at 7P PST (10P EST).

Japanese representatives eliminated from Mlily Cup: The first two rounds of the 2nd Mlily Cup, a Chinese-sponsored international tournament, were held in Beijing on July 7 and 9. The three Japanese players, Ida Atsushi 8P, Yuki Satoshi 9P, and Ichiriki Ryo 7P, were all eliminated in the opening round. photo: Li Qincheng 1P (l), Yuki Satoshi 9P (r)

Yoda keeps lead in Kisei S League: Yoda Norimoto 9P has maintained his undefeated record in the top league, the S League, of the 40th Kisei tournament. In a game played on July 9, Yoda (B) beat Takao Shinji 9P by half a point. Yoda is now 3-0. On July 16, Kobayashi Satoru 9P (B) beat Yamashiro Hiroshi 9P by resignation to pick up his first win (to two losses). Yamashiro has the same score. In another game, played on July 23, Yamashita Keigo 9P (W) beat Murakawa Daisuke Oza by resig. Yamashita goes to 2-1 and Murakawa to 1-2.
Progress report on other leagues: In the A League, Kono Rin 9P has the sole lead on 5-0 with two rounds to go. The only other players in the running are Ichiriki Ryo 7P and Cho Riyu 8P, who are both on 4-1. In the B Leagues, Awaji Shuzo leads the B1 League with 4-2 and Yamada Kimio 9P leads the B2 League on 5-1. In the C League, which is a Swiss System, four players have unblemished records after three rounds. They are: Akiyama Jiro 9P, Han Zenki 8P, Yo Seiki 7P, and Kyo Kagen 3P. In the fourth round, Akiyama will play Han and Yo will meet Kyo. Only one player from this league can join the irregular knock-out tournament for league-winners; to win the league, you have to win all five games, so they are the only ones still in the running.

Cho Chikun repeats in Fumakira Masters: The final of the 5th Fumakira Igo Masters tournament was held in the Ryusei Studio in the basement of the Nihon Ki-in in Ichigaya, Tokyo, on July 11. Taking white, Cho Chikun 9P (l) beat Takemiya Masaki 9P by 5.5 points to win this title for the second year in a row and for the third time overall. This is an official title, so it takes Cho’s record tally to 74 titles. Takemiya was disappointed to miss this opportunity to win his first title for 20 years.

Go Seigen elected to Hall of Fame: The 12th selection meeting of the Hall of Fame Awards was held at the Nihon Ki-in on July 21. Go Seigen (r) was the unanimous choice of the 12 committee members in attendance. There were eight nominees, chosen on May 25 by the nomination committee. Each member can vote for three persons, and the support of two thirds of the members is the qualifying condition. This is the first time since the election of Dosaku that a nominee has been supported by every member.

Tomorrow: Iyama taking aim at two former titles; Iyama retakes lead in Gosei; Takao to challenge for Meijin

Aizu Central Hospital Cup: Xie Yimin (right), Women’s Meijin, will meet O Keii 2P (left), the daughter of O Rissei 9P, in the final of the 2nd Aizu Central Hospital Cup. In the semifinals, played on June 7, Xie (W) beat the previous winner Fujisawa Rina 2P by resignation and O (B) beat Kato Keiko 6P by 4.5 points. The final, the only two-day game in women’s go, will be held on July 2 and 3.

2nd Mlily Cup: Nineteen Japanese players took part in the open preliminary tournament for the 2nd Mlily Cup, held at the Chinese Qiyuan (Ki-in) in Beijing from May 22 to 26. They were made up of ten male professionals, five female professionals, and four amateurs. No Japanese players won a seat in the main tournament, but Yo Seiki 7P, Fujisawa Rina 2P and Xie Yimin 6P did reach the semifinals. In the second round, Fujisawa scored a memorable win over the world’s top-rated woman player, Choe Cheong 5P of Korea. Fujisawa, playing white, had fallen behind but found a brilliancy, a move that looked like a suicide move but which turned the game around. Fujisawa commented that Choe, who is two years her senior, is definitely stronger than her, but she was happy to pick up a win.

O Meien wins 1,000 games: A win on June 4 was O Meien’s 1,000th as a pro. He is the 16th player at the Nihon Ki-in to reach this landmark, and it took him 38 years two months. With 571 losses, two jigos and two no-results, his winning percentage is 63.7.

Promotion: To 8-dan: Kitano Ryo (150 wins) (as of May 29)

Correction: In my report about Otake Hideo’s decoration (5/3 EJ), I wrote that he was the 23rd go player to be so honoured. Go Weekly subsequently amended the list it published; actually 25 players have won decorations.

The AGA is selecting two players to represent North America in the prestigious Mlily Meng Baihe Cup World Go Tournament in China. This is one of the biggest go tournaments, attended by top professionals from each country. Eligibility: AGA/CGA member and US/Canada citizenship, AGA 6.5 minimum rating required. Interested players will need to be able to play in Beijing, the the first session May 22-26 and the second session July 7th and 9th if they advance; travel to Beijing and accommodation must be arranged by players themselves. Depending on the number of interested players, the top eight players will compete in an online double-elimination tournament in late April/early May (exact dates TBA). Interested players should send their names, AGA number, AGA ratings, and country of citizenship to cherry.shen@usgo.org by midnight, Saturday April 25th.

One thing’s for sure about this weekend’s Gu-Lee game: one of them will take the lead in their historic 10-game jubango. With the score tied at 2-2 and their upcoming break in July, whoever wins this game will take the lead for at least two months until they play again. Lee won the first two games but Gu Li has been making a mighty comeback inside and outside the jubango arena. Including matches from other tournaments, Gu currently has a four-game winning streak against Lee, which according to Go Game Guru is “something that’s never happened before between these two players.” Baduk TV will provide live coverage and commentary and Go Game Guru’s An Younggil 8p will translate and discuss the game with Baduk TV Live viewers via chat. For more information including past games and when game five will be available in your time zone, please visit Go Game Guru.— Annalia Linnan, based on a longer article by Go Game Guru; photo courtesy of Go Game Guru